Diesel: Fuel for Inflation?

Truckers Face Record Pump Prices to Get Goods to Stores

Lee Klass was hauling 41,000 pounds of hairspray from Florida to Quebec yesterday when he pulled into a truck stop in North Carolina to fill his tank with diesel. The price: $3.999 a gallon.

"Diesel prices are terrible, and they're not getting any better," the 60-year-old Klass, an independent trucker, said in a cellphone interview as he filled the 240-gallon tank. The final tab: $960.

The auto club AAA reported yesterday that both diesel and gasoline prices smashed previous highs. Gasoline rose to a nationwide average of $3.246 a gallon for regular unleaded. Diesel, which has been setting records almost daily for the past three weeks, hit a nationwide average of $3.876 yesterday.

The average price of diesel fuel has been shooting up even faster than that of gasoline, rising more than 50 cents in barely two months. That is not only squeezing profit out of the trucking business but is also driving up the cost of delivering all kinds of goods to American consumers.

Source Continues